This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Happy to report that I've arrived in Dayton and am awaiting BYU's news conference at University of Dayton Arena and open practice from 6:35 to 7:15 p.m. EDT

UD Arena was constructed in 1969 and hosted the inaugural First Four in 2011 when the Men's NCAA Tournament field was expanded to 68 teams. It is no surprise that UD Arena has become the most-used tournament venue in NCAA history.

The Cougars arrived a couple hours ago, and practiced at nearby Sinclair Community College — the largest community college at a single location in the state of Ohio.

Some folks felt like BYU was over-seeded last year — getting a 10 seed despite the loss of Kyle Collinsworth just before the tournament to an ACL tear. This year, some feel like the Cougars are under-seeded a bit, given their Kenpom rating, Sagarin rating, etc.

Whatever the case, the Cougars on Sunday expressed no frustration with being sent back to Dayton for the first time since 2012 to participate in the First Four.

Actually, the theme on Sunday was gratitude — for the tournament invitation and the way the Cougars turned their season around a month ago.

"Not only in our sport, but in all sports, it is a great life lesson, that you just never give up," said BYU coach Dave Rose. "You never give up on yourself on the opportunity that is next for you. The fact that we were 5-4 halfway through the WCC conference season, and the guys had a lot of opportunities to go different ways. And what they chose as a group was to come together, and 'let's finish this thing as strong as we possibly can.' Sometimes, teams, they are a little easier to manage without a lot of challenges, where you just keep winning and win and win and win and you can manage it from that point of view. When you have a team that has all the challenges and the disappointments and the setbacks, and guys can still find a way to get together and make something really special happen late, it emotionally draws you to that group, because not every group of guys can do that, and it is easy to start pointing fingers and go different directions, but this group just stuck together.

And then you feel disappointed for them when we have a chance to not go through the agony that we went through the last four or five days, and then get the automatic berth, and then that doesn't happen. But our guys came back, and we practiced hard and we practiced well, and now we get a chance to play again, so that's a good thing."

What were the days after the 95-79 loss to Gonzaga in the WCC championship game like for Rose? I asked him on Sunday night.

"Last year, I watched a lot of it and tried to figure it all out, and went in to that thing thinking I had a pretty good idea and it actually shocked all of us when we got the 10th seed," he said. "This year, I said, you know what? They don't really know. What I really paid attention to every night before I went to bed was who were the last four guys and I checked it on two or three different places. But generally I didn't follow it as much as last year because I just know that these aren't the guys deciding. The guys deciding are in the room back in Indianapolis and I figured that's who we have all trusted to get the best 68 teams in there. And sometimes it is not the best 68 because sometimes there are other issues that come in there.

But they have them all ranked, and they have them all in order, and we know where we fell and we are in that group. I think that's the most exciting thing about the whole day."